


Reconstruction of the Soul

by crest_of_bullshit9



Category: Bleach
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Multi, Original Character(s), pairings are mostly minor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-12-02
Packaged: 2019-05-07 05:36:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14664387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crest_of_bullshit9/pseuds/crest_of_bullshit9
Summary: Ichigo was wrong to think he could keep them away from things forever, from the very beginnings their lives were on a collision course with tragedy, now its only the question of how they will deal with. What's done is done and only the Kurosaki twins can carve out new lives for themselves in a world that they were never meant to be apart of in the first place.





	1. Running Start

**Author's Note:**

> my version of a 'Karin and Yuzu go to soul society' story  
> the story is gonna be pretty equally distributed between both the twins but the beginning will probably be more Karin focused

Sunlight burst through the windows of the Kurosaki house, creating a dappled pattern of shadows on table Yuzu had set. 

Already she could tell that the house was full of movement. Out of the corner of her eyes she could just barely make out the outline of one of the clinics more common spirits shifting about, upwards and a little off to the right Yuzu could hear her younger twin moving in bathroom, and directly by the stairca-

"ICHIGO MY SON, I-"

"Shut up and get off you old man!"

The brunette hummed quietly to herself as the sounds of struggling broke out, not even sparing a glance to her brother and dad's antics.

As she set the last side dish on the table Yuzu silently counted down. 

5\.   
The bathroom slammed shut.

4.  
"Both of you need to grow the fuck up and get out my way!"

3.  
The sound of Karin's foot slamming into Isshin's body.

"Karin chan! How could you?" 

2\.   
The impact of Ichigo and Isshin's bodies on the downstairs floor.

1.  
Her own footsteps to their landing spot matched up perfectly with Karin's own down the stairs.

0.  
The resounding threeway chorus of,   
"Morning Yuzu chan"

"Good morning, come on lets eat before everything gets cold"

 

\----------School---------------

 

Inside class 3b of Karakura middle school Karin stared blankly off through the window, as her sensei droned on and on. If she was being honest this class held her attention only a fraction more than watching paint dry would, though in her defense Yuzu had once said that this particular sensei's teaching technique didn’t fit at all with Karin’s learning style. Was it true? Who knows but Karin had had no problem using it as a valid excuse whenever coach Ikayoi badgered her about grades in the past.

In the last year or so things had been pretty calm at least in terms of hollows and such. Whatever had happened that Karin wasn't privy to had clearly caused a massive shift in the soul society. Frankly she didn't really care what it was, only that the end of it had led to an old sense of normalcy returning to Karakura, one that she hadn't felt since back when she was 11.

Idly Karin thanked who ever it was watching out for them that things had happened when they did before pausing and letting out a snort.

Fuck that, she wouldn't be thanking those soul society assholes for anything anytime soon.

Still, the timing of everything had led to Karin actually having had the time for a small stint at cram school in preparation for the oncoming high school entrance exams. While neither Kurosaki girl would ever be categorized as dumb, Karin was well aware of how much Yuzu out ranked her. And despite knowing that her twin would pick whatever highschool they both got into Karin had at least wanted to make sure it was one that benefit Yuzu in the long run. As far as she was concerned she could play soccer anywhere as long as yuzu got to go to one of the nice schools who's brochures Karin had found tucked under the bed.

Between the 3 months of cram school and the weekly study groups between the twins, their friends and a handful of her teammates Karin felt more than ready to tackle the approaching exams. Which was damn good considering how things seemed to be developing. While the Karakura Town of her childhood had briefly made an appearance in the last year, it was clear that things were now returning to the 'new normal', the one that had been in place since Rukia had first shown up. From an increase in hollows to ichigo pulling his disappearing act more and more often everything was pointing to the end of what passed as halcyon days in Karin's chaotic life. 

Holding her planner discreetly under the desk Karin flipped through until she came to the calender where Yuzu had decorated around important dates. Tracing her finger along the swirls of vines and hearts that she would never admit to having contributed to she stared at the neat words written across an entire month that had been blocked out.

'Ichi-nii's Entrance exams'

A major deciding factor in her brother's life was only a few months away and he seemed more concerned with picking up the soul society's slack than actually preparing for it. In fact Karin would go as far to say that Yuzu and herself were more worried about it than Ichigo was.

Obviously she understood why, souls potentially suffering eternal damnation wasn't exactly a price anyone should want to pay just to get into a good school but just because Karin understood didn't mean she was content to sit and watch Ichigo once again put his life on hold to deal with shit that wasn't even his responsibility. Hell, he had more than enough of those already with picking up the ones of every random shithead he crossed paths with. 

Karin clenched her hands, nails digging into to spiral of the planner. None of this would be happening, not if those damn soul reapers ever did their job, instead of half assing everything and leaving her brother to cut himself on the shattered pieces of destruction caused by their negligence. 

"Oi, Kurosaki!"

Karin's head snapped up, broken out of her thoughts, out of the corner of her eye she could see Yuzu's head do the same as their classmates looked between them curiously.

"Not you Yuzu, Karin I do believe that class is for learning not glaring of into space, pay attention or leave"

"Hai, sensei"

The class snickered around her as she shoved the planner back into the desk and made a show of returning her eyes to the blackboard. The last thing she needed was a detention ruining her plans. 

A trip to Urahara's was in order after all.

\---------------------------------------------------------------

 

“Bye Kurosakis, see you guys tomorrow” 

“Bye Chidori” Yuzu called while Karin offered a half hearted wave as their friend all but flew out the doors the minute they were dismissed. Quickly gathering their things together and yelling out goodbyes the twins walked to the school entrance. Just as the reached the front Karin grabbed Yuzu shoulder. 

“Hey, I forgot I was supposed to talk to coach today, I’m gonna see if she’s still hanging around”

“Huh, OK lets head back then, I’ll wait” 

“ Nah, It’s about my juniors in the soccer club so it might take awhile, go on ahead” Karin said all the while praying that Yuzu would buy her excuse. She had been complaining to Yuzu all week about prepping the club juniors and picking a new captain soon all week so it’s not like it was a weak excuse. “Weren’t you gonna try some new recipe today or something anyway”

Yuzu’s eyes searched her’s for a moment and Karin was once again struck with how similar they were to their mother’s own, it had always made Karin feel like she was committing some great sin in lying to Yuzu, as if Masaki was watching her, judging her dishonesty from beyond the grave. 

“Are you sure? We could split up to look for her, finding her would go faster”

“It’s fine don’t worry go on” 

Finally Yuzu shrugged, and gave Karin a brief hug and ‘bye’ before setting off. Karin jogged back to the school, peeking over her shoulder as Yuzu rounded the corner.

‘Sorry sis but this is what I gotta do if I want to help out Ichi-nii.’

She waited a few more minutes before exiting the school again, darting down the street towards Urahara’s shop.  
\---------------------------------

“Oi Urahara and friends!” Karin yelled as she slammed the shop door shut. “Anyone home?”

In any other place she might feel bad for banging shit around, but it’s not like Urahara actually ever had paying customers anyways. Hell at this point even Yuzu of all people was starting to think the shop was a front for some sort of illegal activity.

“Ah Kurosaki-chan, what brings you around”

Karin swung her head around to the corner of the shop where the voice had come from to see the blonde shop-keep in his usual unassuming position. 

His non-threatening act and surprised tone did nothing to fool Karin, as far as she was concerned it wouldn’t be shocking at all if the man had known she was gonna show up even before she had decided on it herself, if not that then he still would have obviously felt her heading here from blocks away.

“Cut the crap” she grounded out “ I may not be the best at math but I’m a least 90 percent sure you know why I’m here”

“Urahara laughed and cocked his head to the side, “Only 90 percent?” 

“Whatever, look old man I need to start up my training again”

“Why would anyone wanna train your stupid ass again!” 

Karin itched to turn her head to where the familiar voice had come from but remained facing Urahara, she wasn’t going to give Jinta the satisfaction of even acknowledging his presence, let alone his words. But of course the overgrown asswipe just had to continue on.

“Especially since your lazy ass peaced out, who the fuck wants to train someone who turns tail everytime their weak ass gets beat or shit gets to hard”

“Shut the hell up dumbass, no one asked for your damn opinion!” She snarled back. Nothing about Karin’s choice to ditch training had had anything to do with being a coward or afraid. She just had no interest in making the same mistakes Ichigo had, ignoring the future to play hero for a bunch of people who couldn’t even bother to be properly grateful half the time. Honestly with the way a majority of the past year had gone it hadn’t made much sense to continue on anyway, hollow activity had been down to nearly nothing to the point where even Ichigo left most of them to the Karakura’s single assigned soul reaper. 

It was the rational choice and Karin refused to be shamed for it, especially by Jinta, a dumbass who’s probably never even had a rational thought in his entire life.

The boy opened his opened his mouth to respond but Urahara stopped him short. Good. If he’d said anything more Karin knew she would’ve punched him.

“Why the change of heart Kurosaki, usually your lot are pretty stubborn when it comes to your choices”

“Look, circumstances change and sometimes you gotta just roll with them” she could tell by how he looked at her imploringly from under his hat that he wanted her to say more but she wasn’t about to give this guy her whole damn life story just to answer a simple question. She had long since learned that when it came to Urahara it was best not to volunteer any non-essential information about yourself. 

“Alright Kurosaki, I’ll bite” he started, as Jinta fumed beside them, and Karin could practically hear the incoming condition. For a brief moment she wondered if Urahara ever did anything without ulterior motives or conditions before he continued on, “ Just be aware training will be a lot harder than last time”

“I’m fine with that”

“Great, training starts in two days, I’ve already got the perfect regime for you”

Karin turned and marched out of the shop, flashing Jinta a triumphant smirk as she past by, only for it to drop when she was well away from the shop.

With a sigh she started home.

Why is it that whenever she made a deal with that guy it always felt like she had gotten played?


	2. Stagnant

The sound of shoes slapping against the ground surrounded Karin as she powered past yet another of her classmates on the track field. Usually she enjoyed the consistency of mindless exercise during p.e but lately she had been getting more than enough of that at Urahara’s. A flash of annoyance crossed her face just thinking about the supposedly ‘intense training’ that the man had dealt out.

In the past two weeks since her trip to the shop Karin had logged hours and hours worth of time just doing the most basic of exercises and reiastu control barely a step above what she could already do. In fact Urahara’s whole training regime had seemed like something straight out of one of those shitty sports mangas that Karin teammates kept trying to push on her. She knew that she didn’t exactly have the most controlled temper but honestly who wouldn’t be annoyed if they were lying and sneaking about to do the same shit that they could have done alone. 

Karin slowed her pace as she caught up to Yuzu and Chidori, high fiving them as she passed by while thinking back to how indignation she had felt during the first week of training before realizing what was going on. It had taken a good five days, endless taunting for Jinta, as well as Yoruichi's subtle hints to realize that the bare bones beginning of her training had been Urahara’s asshole way of teaching her a lesson for quitting last time. It was petty, passive aggressive and exactly the type of thing she should have expected from the guy. But honestly, no matter how much it pissed her off, Karin really couldn’t blame him for it. Hell, she could admit to having done nearly the same damn thing to wishy-washy members of the soccer team, though in her case she hadn’t been potential fucking around with life or death situations like he was. 

That revelation had done nothing to improve her mood though or quell her frustrations. After all she still had to deal with the guilt of bullshitting to Yuzu and the rest of their friends and family about what she was doing. It wasn’t even the lying that was getting to her, it was the easy way they all just accepted her excuses as if they all thought her above lying or didn’t see an reason as to why she would.

Working her legs harder Karin dashed forward, flashing a quick thumbs up as the Sensei urged her on. 

Nothing better than running out your feelings she thought to herself.

Or running away from them, that worked too.

\---------------------------------------------------------

As her sister speed past them, Yuzu watched on in concern, tracking her moves as she zipped around their classma-

“ Ack!” she exclaimed as both her and her friend stumbled forward from the impact at their backs. Before they could fall familiar calloused hands reached out and set them right.

Chidori whipped around to face their surprise guest with a snarl “Honestly Natayani why can’t you watch where you're going?”

“ Eh sorry, I was busy watching hurricane Karin touchdown” turning as well Yuzu looked on as the dark haired boy responded. “Speaking of which what’s up with Kurosaki number 3 Yuzu chan?” Natayani Ajou was probably their oldest friend, had known them from back before their mother had passed. No matter how much Karin had tried to push everyone away with fists and harsh words his family had been one of the few who had stuck by the Kurosaki’s through their grief, had helped them through Isshin’s withdrawing into himself in ways a 9 year old and two 6 years old couldn’t help themselves, so it was no surprise to the brunette that he had noticed Karin’s recent mood. 

Yuzu shrugged her shoulders, and ignoring the knot already developed in her side started back on a slow jog, Ajou and Chidori following her lead. It was true that it wasn’t unlike Karin to be annoyed, sometimes just being around people too long was enough to set her off, but lately something about her behaviour had seemed odd. Yuzu knew enough about her sister to know that if something serious was truely bother Karin it wouldn’t be showing so plainly, in fact that was one of the few traits that she knew all the Kurosaki’s shared. It honestly looked as though Karin was just in a generally frustrated state of mind, which wasn’t exactly uncommon in the Kurosaki household.

“She’s been up late studying lately, that’s probably why”

“ Ehn, Karin studies?” 

“Ah but maybe if you didn’t sleep through our study sessions you know that” Ajou quipped, dodging as Chidori jokingly swung on him while Yuzu giggled.

While it was technically true that Karin had been up late, Yuzu was under no delusions to that being the reason why she was in such a vexed mood, she just didn’t think her twin would appreciate them speculating her business. Nothing grinded at her more than people talking behind back, Yuzu supposed it made sense that someone as clear with their opinions as Karin was wouldn’t like that kind of thing. Anyway despite her worries she knew that if anything was really bothering Karin, she’d have said something by now to Yuzu. There was no reason to get everyone worked up over her own admittedly overactive mother henning tendencies.

“Oi, Kurosaki, Hamada, Natayani! This is p.e, not the time for idle gossip, speed it up!”

“Hai, Sensei!”  
The three of them picked up their pace, Ajou speeding off ahead as Yuzu and Chidori huffed along behind him effectively ending the conversation.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Without Karin’s issues to occupy her mind Yuzu had nothing but the horrors of physical education to focus on.

“Aaaannd, time!” the gruff voice of Akakano sensei rang out, “ Next heat get ready!”

Stumbling over to where Chidori was already sprawled out Yuzu collapsed into the grass next to the red haired girl, as they both caught their breath.

“Was it decent?” she asked, closing her eyes to the bright sunlight bearing down on them. Regarding her briefly the other girl sat up.

“Do you want the truth or...” she joked. 

“Hmm, a lie would be nice”

“Karin better watch out, soon you’ll be out speeding past her!” Yuzu giggled but with how heavy her breathing still was it came out as more of a choked huff. 

Yuzu already knew she wasn’t particularly gifted when it came to physical activity but she got by, it was just that the way Karin excelled at it made her own lack of abilities more obvious. It was a constant downside of being twins, everything they did was compared and led to people seeing the two of them as complete opposites. Which, however unintentional, usually lead to downing playing one of them in some way, Chidori’s earlier quip about Karin’s studying habits had been a perfect example of that.

“Hey, Karin’s up next” a new voice called out and Yuzu opened her eyes to see Mayuki, another classmate, settling down beside her. Propping her head up on sore arms she peered towards the field to see Karin just getting into place.

“Woo! Let’s go Karin-chan” Chidori yelled, completely ignoring the scolding look sensei threw their way and Karin’s skillful attempt to pretend she hadn’t heard a thing as the over zealous cheering continued. Mayuki and Yuzu laughed as Karin finally turned, throwing them a deadpan look that clearly begged for them to shut Chidori up. 

Once the whistle was blown she speed through the circuit of runs and jumps, once again leaving everyone else in her dust while the rest of their classmates looked on in awe and Yuzu swelled with pride.

It was times like these that Yuzu sometimes forgot that she was watching her twin. The look in Karin’s eyes when she put a hundred percent of her effort and focus into something, especially if it was soccer, reminded Yuzu so much of fierceness that Ichigo always had.

Looking at the siblings it had never been hard for people to determine where each of them picked up certain characteristics. Yuzu obviously favoured her mother in looks while Karin was obviously their father’s daughter, Ichigo on the other hand was often cited as a perfect blend between the two in appearance. But when it came to demeanor Yuzu could just as easily recognize something unidentifiable that both her siblings and dad possessed. It was something as plain as day whenever she watched Karin run, or when their dad had a particularly difficult patient or when Ichigo did pretty much anything. And not for the first time Yuzu felt a small pang of longing for whatever ‘it’ was that connected the rest of her living family. The overwhelming strength both mentally and physically that seemed to define them. The fire that made people naturally gravitate towards them, that brought forward the most intense emotions within others. 

She was profoundly proud whenever someone likened her to their mother, it was a complement above all others, especially when the family had just been getting back on their feet. It was like a salve to her grief to know that in some way she was preserving a small bit of her mother in her looks, demeanor or actions but a small, tiny, secret part of her longed for that trait of theirs, rather than whatever parts of herself inherited for her mother. The parts that seemed to have made it impossible for some to look at her without tearing up or calling forth Masaki name to their lips. 

Ashamed, Yuzu quickly pushed that thought from her mind. 

‘I am good at the things I decided to take on in life and the same can be said for Dad, Ichi-nii and Karin” There is no point in wanting to be something you’re not she thought as her eyes followed her twin along the field.

‘After all it's not as if I could even if I wanted to.’  
\-----------------------------------------

The wind blew through the window of Karakura high school as Ichigo stared blankly out of it, a crumpled slip of paper resting loosely in his hand. And though his own gaze wouldn't spare the paper a glance there where several eyes around the room that couldn’t seem to look away from it, or him. 

Tatsuki let out a soft sigh and exchanged a glance with Keigo and Mizuiro while Uryu, Chad and Orihime simple looked on at the blank ‘future plans’ sheet that threatened to slip from their friend’s hand with each gust of wind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like i spending way to much time in the twins heads rather than on dialogue, oh well, i'll improve on that hopefully


	3. Downtime

" I'm just saying it's not our fault"

Karin snorted at the loud exclamation from Chidori as they walked down the hall along with Yuzu and Mayuki.

"Still, I feel bad," The former responded, swinging Karin's cleats in her hands as they went. The four of them dodged around other students as the made their way to the back field where soccer practices took place. "Hina sensei is probably having a hard time"

"Of course you do, that's cause you've got a bleeding heart Yuzu-ah," Mayuki deadpanned "you should try and get that fixed up,"

"Never gonna happen, trust me I've tried"

"Karin chan!" Yuzu whined dragging out her name as small, joking pout formed on her lips "you're supposed to take my side, what kind of twin are you"

"The best kind"

"Anyway, Chidori-chan weren't you bawling to us just last week over being rejected" Mayuki stated, " you'd think you would be more forgiving of sensei's feelings"

"Eh, we all already know Chidori's a hypocrite"

"Hey Karin-chan do me a favour, shut up yeah?" 

Karin rolled her eyes but did just that, letting their chatter over sensei's shitty love life calm her mind. Urahara's boring ass training hadn't left time for much of anything besides school and soccer practice, hell the only reason why she was even getting enough sleep was because her and Yuzu still shared a room. Under normal circumstances Yuzu would be her go to alibi when it came to being out after curfew but given the fact that Karin couldn't exactly just tell her where she was going trying to sneak out on a regular basis was just too damn risky. Anyways these kinds of easy moments between them all were growing fewer with the end of middle school and graduation looming on the horizon, and though Karin wouldn't admit it out loud, especially not around Chidori's noisy self or Mayuki smug-as-a-snake ass, she was gonna miss it. And if Karin happened to slow her steps, lengthening their journey through halls to preserve the moment a bit well, no one had to know.

"Oi! Captain, wait up!"

Well moment ruined.

She huffed before turning around to see one of her 2nd year club member, Hashida, tearing down the hall towards them with a gaggle of clearly impressionable first years trailing after him.

" Here comes some of your dear teammates Captain-sama" simpered Chidori while Mayuki didn't even attempt to hide her smirk.

"Hush up big mouth" Karin hissed at the two before leaving them to Yuzu's admonishing look.

Good. That'll teach them not to be such assholes.

"Hey Hashida, just what kind of example does your dumbass thinking you're setting!" Karin took pride in the fact that her club juniors all had some good hearts but holyshit did they do some stupid crap that made Karin want to rip out her hair sometimes, "Newsflash idiot, tearing through the halls like a pack of wild dogs isn't a good look for the soccer club!"

Seeing Hashida and the first years deflate like popped balloons made her feel a bit bad, like she was kicking puppies or something but Karin couldn't afford to be nice about these sort of things. These guys were the future of her soccer club and all the third years were expecting a lot from them, especially Hashida who was currently in the running for the position of the next captain.

Slapping his hands to his sides he turned away from her and now facing the carnage they'd left in their path Hashida did a full bow, the first years following a split second after.

"Sorry schoolmates!"

From beside her Karin heard Chidori burst out in laughter and saw Yuzu’'s blushing as all the eyes in the hallway focused in on to their group.

Turning back towards her they followed the same action again, this time not rising from their bow.

"Sorry Captain!"

With a sigh Karin reached forward to straighten one of the first years up. "Jeez, you guys don't have to do all that" 

"Disruptive, maybe but hey at least no one can ever accuse the club of being impolite" Yuzu said smiling softly at all the members " it's a step up from you and Ajou as first years right?" 

"Not even" She lied. Admittedly the two of them, as well as most of the other first years had been pretty umm, rambunctious to say the least, but that had only been because so many of them had been coming from an elementary or out school team where they had been incharge. Plus the soccer club back then had been run by a bunch of dumbasses who thought that because their own upperclassmen had graduated they could treat the newbies any ol'way and that hadn't flied with most of them. Karin still fondly remembered the looks on their faces when the coach had elected a new 2nd year captain,Hibiki, who’d promptly snatched the old captain’s starting position and assigned it to Karin in what eventually ended up in a soccer club civil war.

"Come on lets go, at this point we're all gonna be late and I sure as hell ain't giving myself laps to run"

"Ok, Captain!" Chidori saluted and the first years around her giggled in a way only those who didn't realize the girl's annoyingness could. 

"Ah, um will you guys be staying to watch us?" one if the first years asked Mayuki, Yuzu and Chidori as they continued down the hall, but from the way his eyes kept drifting over to her twin it was clear who the question was meant for. Karin narrowed her eyes but otherwise let her friends think it over. Under normal circumstances she operated under the assumption that all boys who like-liked Yuzu were unworthy and if they had the nerve to even try shit right in front of Karin than they were also idiots who deserved to be blocked on every level. But at this point Karin had long since gotten the weird crushes that various teammates had on her three friends. More importantly she knew it wasn't going anywhere so there was no really point in running interference anyway.

Batting her eyes at Hashida, who Karin was sure didn't even notice, Chidori answered the question that obviously wasn't directed at her.

"Oh sure if it doesn't bother you guys" 

Oh God. That tone of voice let Karin know exactly what she was in for. A whole 2 hours of practice with Chidori and probably Mayuki 'stretching' and posing on the bleachers like casual gravure models flustering half her team while Yuzu either helped the managers or studied, all the while skilfully pretending she didn't notice the embarrassing display their two friends were making.

Karin contemplated saying something but Yuzu beat her to it.

"Sorry but I don't think we can today. We have a big test coming up" She started, looking apologetic " Anyway Karin mentioned you guys have some pretty intense matches coming up, we wouldn't want to distract you, right guys?

"That's right" Mayuki said sagely taking the obvious hint unlike Chidori who only answered with a resigned 'I guess...' 

"But how about we come by next week after practise with some snacks " Karin immediately saw where her twin was leading and jumped on with that line of thought.

" Yeah, it could be a little reward for when we cream those idiots from Sekoudan"

A way to keep up moral up for future matches and directly avoid any distractions during practise all wrapped in one. 

"Alright! Let's do this" Hashida cheered before starting off in a run towards the change rooms before he stopped midway, offered Karin a remorseful look and slowed his speed to brisk but acceptable pace. The first-years followed before splitting for their respective change rooms leaving the four of them alone again.

"Karin-chan your teammates are like little ducklings, it's weird" 

"Mayuki shut up, they don’t"

" You're silencing me cause I'm right"

"I don't know, it's kinda cute" Chidori said.

" Ok you guys stop before Karin really does have to give herself laps" 

With some quick goodbyes Karin watched as Yuzu herded the other two away before turning to the changeroom.

"... yeah it's true but you didn't have to say it"

"Oi Yuzu, you're supposed to be on my side!"

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Alright guys nice hustle! Time to pack it up!"

"Yes Coach!"

"Kurosaki, Ajou! Get over here after!"

"Got it!" 

Even with soccer practise over adrenaline still pounded through Karin's veins. During practise it was like all her worries melted away, like the fatigue that had been plaguing her since starting back up training with Urahara and balancing it with school work was drowned out by each kick of the ball and the pride that consumed her every time one of her underclassmen made a shot that they couldn't have just weeks before. The only feeling that ever trumped it was during actual games, when Ichigo could come watch while Yuzu and the cheer club waved huge banners and Isshin put his loud ass voice to use leading the team's families' and friends' in all sorts of embarrassing chants that her teammates loved. 

The thought of her brother immediately damped her mood. He used to love soccer just as much, he'd been the one to teach her after all, it used to be all of them in the stands cheering him on.

But now it was just one more thing Karin had watched him give up, all to deal with whatever the latest issue those shinigami had all but invited into their lives.

She clenched her fist and then let out a sigh. Everyone had done good today, it wouldn’t be fair to let out her anger on her team.

"Alright guys, Inani, Hashida deal with the nets, everyone else gather the balls and pylons."

" Don't forget to set aside the ones that need more air so the managers can deal with it!" Ajou added. 

Once everyone was on their tasks the two of them jogged over to where their coach stood observing them all with her sharp eyes from the shade of a tree.

" I've already got a couple ideas on next years starting line but I wanted to get a feel on what you guys were thinking" the coach said with her gaze still firmly trained on the rest of the team. 

Karin gave a quick look at Ajou before he nodded at her to speak first.

" In terms of the next captain I was originally thinking Hashida, he has the skills and many of the club members already look up to him"

The coach mulled over thar for a second before she spoke " Hmm, you're right. He does have some remarkable leadership qualities but you said 'originally'"

"Being the Captain immediately puts a divide between him and everyone else and honestly I don't think he would want that" 

" From my side I'm not sure he would deal well with the pressure of it either plus I can already see Nana and Yama railroading over him" Ajou added. " people would be undermining him at every point because they see him as a friend first and a leader second'

" I see your points, but then who are you guys thinking than?"

Between the two of them they rattled off the strengths and weaknesses of everyone who had been considered.

"Orina would do well at it in most cases but once she loses confidence she completely shuts down..."

"Hiro is our up and coming ace, right after Karin, but he's so concerned with not hogging the ball that sometimes he passes on shots he easily could have made.."

"Nana is too rough, it's not a good look when the captain is getting yellow carded ever other game. So that leaves us with-"

"Noranami" the coach answered, narrowing her eyes at them. " Interesting choice. Explain" 

The two of them shared a look. 

"Noranami deals the best under pressure for one, remember the Irasuki game where Karin was injured and I was red carded, she was the only one who kept her cool." 

"She may be average in terms of skills but has the drive to improve and she's already a good strategist" 

"All that may be true but she hasn't exactly opened up to the team"

Ajou shrugged his shoulders, "Neither had I when Hibiki chose me to be Karin's vice captain, she can learn just like I did" 

"As individuals they each have their share of detractors but as a pair the two of them completely cover each other's weaknesses and strike a good balance"

Karin held her breath as they watched Coach turn the idea over in her head.

" You guys made a pretty good case for your decisions so I'll you to it" she said " But honestly rather than that it's mostly because of what Ajou said. He's right, when Hibiki chose you two to take on the club you were both lacking in so many ways yet still managed to bring the team to new heights. Did you know I literally fought his decision on that every step of the way?"

"Sensei, you didn't exactly hide your disdain for us" Karin answered drily.

“Yeah it was quite obvious" Anjou shrugged "but it made us that much more ready to prove you wrong"

"Huh well damn, hopefully those two have the same drive. Head home but by next practice I want to compare some potential starting lineups to try for our mock matches with Hinoa and Stirinaka middle schools.

"Got it Sensei, goodbye "

Karin turned in her heel and trekked through the now empty field towards the girls change room after waving a farewell to Ajou. Ideas about the practise matches already forming in her head. As she past the bleachers a voice called out to her.

"Kurosaki!"

She shaded her eyes from the sun and squinted over at the direction, wondering who was calling her well after practise was done. She could just barely make out Orina waving wildly at her from one of the open class windows before jogging over to her.

" What's up? Shouldn't you be on your bus by now?"

" Waiting for Imaoi, she has Kendo practise, anyway Nana wanted me to tell you she went on ahead today" 

"Ah, thanks for the heads up, completely forgot to tell her to not bother waiting"

Nana lived barely a block away from the clinic so more often than not Karin walked home with the other girl on days when soccer practise ran after school. 

"No problem" 

"It'll be dark by the time Kendo's finished so be careful" Orina and Imaoi had been not so subtle chasing after each other for as long as Karin had know them, they were the only ones who didn’t seem to realize it, so it was no surprise that Orina was willing to wait a good hour more for the other girl to finish up with Kendo. But that didn’t mean that Karin had to like the idea on her teammate travelling home that late.

"Don't worry captain, her brother's picking us up" 

"Wow, I'm sorry"

"Huh?"

"Can't make a move with her brother's driving " Karin joked "but then again you always have liked the shameless type"

"Kurosaki Karin wipe that damn smirk off your face! You’re really never gonna let me forget that incident!?”

“Nope, not when me and Yuzu had to cover for you” She answered, already laughing as Orina screeched in a hilarious mix of fury and embarrassment.

“You just wait, the minute your show the tiniest hint of interest in someone I'll pay you back tenfold!"

Karin laughed and jogged the rest of the way to the change room leaving a fuming Orina behind. Not even bothering to change back into her uniform she grabbed her things and started on the route home.

Yep, today had been a good day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah Karin's good day doesn't last long


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally this and the previous chapter were just one but I figured it would be too long

Once she reached the crossroad between the route home and the one to Urahara's Karin briefly considered heading over for some extra practise before she dismissed the idea.

"I'll just head over after school tomorrow as planned" 

She slowed her pace as she waved at familiar neighbours and the shop owners who unlike, Urahara and his idiot patrol, actually ran legitimate businesses. Idly her thoughts strayed to her twins increasingly imaginative theories on just what the ragtag group actually used the shop for, at this point Yuzu’s ideas were reaching Orihime levels of eccentric.

‘She wouldn’t be working herself into a tizzy about it if you just told her the truth’

Karin violently shoved that thought away as she slipped down her usual backroad.

Just telling Yuzu what was up always seemed like the easier option, especially whenever Karin thought about how Ichigo, still to this day, hadn’t given her any concrete answers despite the fact that they both knew she had successfully went up against hollows when he’d temporarily lost his powers and the soul society had done nothing about it. 

But no she wasn’t bitter about that at all. Not one bit. 

Everything about the whole situation had become an open secret in the family, one that everyone, but Yuzu, knew about but no one ever actually discussed. So yeah, anyone would consider just babbling to Yuzu decent idea, until you you know actually thought about it and realized it’d be stupid as hell. There was a reason Ichigo, and their dad, who Karin always suspected knew more than he let on, kept this shit from them. It was dangerous for one, and Yuzu was a ‘fixer’ in a similar way that every Kurosaki was, only unlike Karin she could never emotional detach herself from a situation, could never draw the line in the sand that signalled ‘enough’, she was just too empathetic. If Yuzu knew even the tiny bits of info that Karin had managed to glean over the years the she’d be out their trying to solve every spirits problem and Karin would have to deal with another sibling tossing their life away over shit that wasn’t any of their jobs.

On top of that it honestly wasn’t her place. It was Ichigo’s businesses that Karin had accidently fallen into and she wasn’t going to air out his dirty laundry to Yuzu, who still idolized him, for the sake of lightening the weight of guilt on her own shoulders. Better to keep a secret then to have Yuzu and Ichigo needlessly hurt over stupidness. 

There was no-

Karin stumbled to a stop, the abrupt change in the air pressure weighed her down like lead and knocked her thoughts wayside.

Hollow.

Before she could even stop to think Karin sped forward towards where the air seemed densest. These back roads were usually pretty deserted but they were only a few hundred yards in any direction away from much more populated areas. How the fuck had it gotten there without any of the shit ton of spiritually aware people in town noticing? She needed to stop this thing in its tracks. Now. Before it all wen-

Karin’s quick instincts were the only thing that saved her as she turned the corner, a huge appendage flying into where she had previously been.

‘Shit, I forgot to mask reiryoku’ 

Quickly scanning the area her eyes followed what looked like a tail to the hollow. The thing was huge, much bigger than any one that she had faced before and Karin was once again boggled that it hadn't been noticed sooner. It had a kind of bulging body that gave Karin the impression of it’s skin being too small to contain it, with sections of if it flesh swelling out like tumours. Spotting movement out of the corner of her eye she jumped out of the way again, but this time not fast enough to avoid a glancing blow that sent her reeling. She fired off a quick burst of Reiatsu at the hollow’s back but that didn’t seem to do anything but annoy it from where it was hunched over. 

Karin shifted again and this time kept moving to avoid another blow. Clearly this hollow was strong so there was no playing around here, she needed break that mask and take this thing down as soon as possible. It continued to lash out at her with its tail, not even sparing her a glance. Frustrated she sent a particularly strong blast at the side of its bulbous masked face and it finally turned to screech at her in rage.

“Finally paying attenti-” Karin voice trailed off as she caught sight of what the hollow had been bowed over and her breath stuttered, feet freezing in place.

Nana. 

The blood roared in her ears as she took in her friends body lying awkwardly on the gravel, she barely felt the hollows arm as it sent her flying into the nearby wall.

Stumbling to her feet just as she saw the tail came her way Karin braced for the next blow, but it never came. 

In front of her blocking strike stood a shinigami that she just barely recognized as familiar before she was darting past them.

“Kurosaki!” 

She ignored the call as she crashed to her knees by where her classmate laid. 

Let the Shinigami fight and die for all she cared, hollows were their fucking job anyway. 

Karin tuned out the battle as she gently brushed aside Nana’s dyed blonde hair and pressed a finger to her neck to check for a pulse.

If Nana died because those fuckers weren’t doing their job, if Karin was forced to find some way to explain this, if…

Under her finger Karin felt the other girls pulse pounding strong and let out a breath before she checked her over for any other injuries. Luckily Nana didn’t seem to badly beat up, bruised yes and probably a broken arm as well as a dislocated shoulder from what Karin could tell but alive. Alive. 

After carefully picking her up Karin finally turned back to the fight and promptly froze.

It had been awhile and he definitely had changed a bit but there was no denying who that Shinigami was.

Hitsugaya Toshiro.

Fuck. Could shit get any worse?

“Oi!” She called out, “ I’m taking her to the clinic” Not even waiting to see if he had heard her Karin rushed off uncaring to how it singed her pride to run from the fight. She had much more pressing things to worry about.

It took less than six minutes to make it to the house at top speed but it felt like an eternity with Nana unconscious in her arms. Karin all but crashed into the clinic in her haste to lay Nana down on one of the patient beds.

“ Karin, are you okay, I heard a cra-Is that Nana-chan!?” Without waiting for a response Yuzu had already started flitting around the room and gathered supplies. Soon they were working in tandem as they gave Nana a more proper examination then Karin had been able to in the tense moment back in the alley. Together they pressed her shoulder back into it’s correct spot with practised ease, not even wincing at the sound it made and cleaned and bandaged her smaller wounds. 

It was only after they splinted their friend’s right arm and checked for a concussion that Yuzu turned towards her.

“What happened” It was said in Yuzu’s calm ‘nurse’ voice but Karin could hear the underlaid panic as her twin started on Karin’s own scrapes and bruises. 

“ I’m not sure. I found her on the shortcut, she must have fallen badly by one of those construction ditches. I had to climb down to reach her” In the last few weeks a couple of patients had come in after falls by that path so it was a believable lie, still the ease at which it came made Karin’s stomach turn in guilt but she couldn’t exactly tell Yuzu the truth, and she sure as hell couldn’t recount it to Nana’s parents that when they called them. Hopefully Nana didn’t remember too much of what actually happened. 

Yuzu nodded and finished wrapping a small cut on Karin’s thigh, “I guess she’s lucky then, it could have been a lot worse.” Getting up she excused herself to go call Nana’s parent’s and Isshin leaving Karin to watch over their patient.

Now that the adrenaline worn off everything that had just happened crashed down on Karin and she had to fight the urge to scream. Never before had she fucked up so badly fighting a hollow. She should have know that there was a reason the hollow wasn’t focused on her and she damn well shouldn’t have frozen up in battle. 

“I got cocky” She whispered to herself before breaking out into a shaky laugh “ Some basic ass training and I’m already getting cocky and fucking up”

The fact that out of all the shinigami that had to have come and save her ass it had to be one she actually knew made the whole thing even more embarrassing.

“Ka-karin”

Her eyes snapped towards the bed and she vaulted forward to softly press Nana back into the sheets as she tried to sit up.

“Don’t move around to much, you’re injured”

“Yeah. I can feel that.” Nana deadpanned “I’m guessing I’m benched for the rest of the season huh?” 

“Probably” She couldn’t blame her for that being her primary worry, if she’d been in her place Karin would have asked the same thing. “Do you remember what happened?”

The other girls eye’s turned stormy, yet also uncertain “I-I think someone pushed me or something, all I remember is walking home then suddenly being on the ground in the worst pain ever, worse than that time that Jinjoo Middle player broke my leg, then waking up here.”

Karin let out a sigh and tried not to let the relief show on her face. In the past Nana had been a really abrasive person, more so than even Karin, who hadn’t always been involved in the best crowds before joining soccer. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch for anyone to believe someone had had enough issues with her to push her in a ditch then freaked out and left after injuring the 2nd year more than they intended. 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yuzu hung up the phone after the she informed their dad of theri newest patient, hopefully he’d be back in time to give Nana a expert look over before the Ashitanis arrived later to pick up Nana. She peeked her head in to the clinic and saw that Nana was up, and by the sound of it shaking Karin down for the identity of the next soccer club captain. 

“ Hey Nana, your parents said they might be awhile so is there anything particular you want for dinner?”

“Eh, anything is fine for me Yuzu-chan”

“Yeah just make whatever, anyway if you spoil her she won’t leave?” Karin deadpanned,” Hey! You’re injured! Don’t try and swat me!”

“That’s why you should be nice to me!”

Yuzu laughed and headed back to the kitchen but once she was there her smile slide off her face. 

Out of everyone in her family Karin was one of the worst at hiding things, besides her dark hair it was one of the most obvious traits she’d inherited from their dad. It wasn’t to say that she was bad at lying per se but sometimes her emotions played out on her face in a really small way that Karin probably didn’t even notice. It usually wasn’t a big deal since the people her twin lied to typically didn’t actually know her well enough to tell but for Yuzu it was like Karin’s fear had been laid out open as a book. 

There was no way Karin would have been that upset if she really thought Nana had just fallen.

Grabbing a ladle Yuzu went over to stir the pot of miso on the stove, idly turning over the situation in her mind she mused over the state that Nana had been brought there in. 

While a bad fall into a ditch on some of those back streets could have yield most of those injuries a dislocated shoulder on one arm and a broken radius bone on the other didn’t make much sense. It could happen but that would have taken a pretty weird landing, either that or multiply impact points on the way down but her gut doubted both possibilities. In any case the real clue here wasn’t just Karin’s reaction but also that Yuzu knew for a fact that Nana couldn’t have fallen, at least not badly enough for those injuries. She’d seen Nana walk, run, and sprint with a soccer ball down that exact route home at nearly everyday for the past year, the other girl had never stumbled. Not even once. She had the same sure footed grace on her feet that Karin had, only even more pronounced. 

No, Yuzu could not imagine her falling but being pushed...definitely. She didn’t particularly want to think about someone hating Nana enough to have shoved her into a ditch but it would explain the injuries on her arms better then having just taken a tumble. Nana had had a previous shoulder injury last year so a hard enough shove at her shoulder would have been enough to dislocate it again and then she could have landed on her other arm and broke the radius shielding her head explaining the lack of head injuries, then blacked out from the pain.

From that point of view Karin lie made sense as well, either she herself thought Nana really just fell or she hadn’t wanted to disclose the fact that Nana was pushed. Given the younger girl’s past Yuzu couldn’t blame either of them for not mentioning it. She knew already that her twin saw herself reflected in Nana, when they had first met the second year the angry, bitter way she carried herself reminded Yuzu of those first few months after their mom had passed when Karin had done her best to push everyone away. It was one of the reason’s Karin had recruited her to the soccer team which ended up being a great influence on her life. It made complete sense that Karin would be hesitant to bring up someone attacking Nana, both in fear of bringing up bad memories for Nana when they had to inform her parents and because her twin had a tendency to shut Yuzu out of things that would worry her. Predictably this usually ended up worrying her more. With a sigh she made the decision to just let Karin’s lie stand, there was no point disputing it if it was just gonna upset Nana and Karin, especially since she already had a pretty good idea of the truth. Still she resolved to make sure from now on that all three of them stuck to the main roads for awhile and that at least two people walked home with Nana from now on. 

Turning the stove off she set about sharing out the food and placing it on the cart to bring into the clinic. Since Ichigo and their dad weren’t home yet and there was no other patients in the clinic they might as well just eat in there.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

Once the Ashitanis had picked up Nana Karin could finally let out a sigh of relief. 

Quite frankly she was done with today and was ready to just sleep. Yuzu must have seen it on her face or something because she waved her away when Karin tried to help with the kitchen clean up. 

"I'll let you off for dishes, but just for today" 

" You sure?" She wanted to take her up on the offer but Yuzu had done all the cooking, it was only fair that Karin at least did the dishes. Anyway it wasn't like Karin would be able to go to sleep anytime soon though, not with the visitor who was currently relaxing upstairs.

"Go to sleep Karin, you look tired" 

There was no point in arguing with Yuzu when she got in her mother hen mode so Karin started up the steps and past their room, vowing to do the cleaning for Yuzu tomorrow. Quietly slipping into Ichigo’s room Karin turned to scowl at the current occupant. 

"You are sooo lucky Ichigo and my dad aren't here"

"Funny I was just about to point out the same thing"

Karin glared at the white-haired shinigami currently perched on her brothers bed. Stormy eyes warned Toshiro away from that topic but he continued on, apparently as good at taking a hint as Chidori.

"I don't think either of them would be particularly impressed with you needlessly tossing yourself in danger"

Exhaling through her teeth Karin fought to get control of her emotions, conscious of the fact that Yuzu was just downstairs. 

"I wouldn't have to if your lackeys did their jobs" 

Toshiro gave her a look that made Karin feel like she was some brat throwing a temper tantrum, instead of voicing a valid complaint. Not backing down she met his gaze with what she hoped was an unimpressed look of her own. 

“ Did the other civilian end up being ok” he asked, breaking the tense silence that had settled between them. Karin chafed at the implication at the captain’s use of ‘other’, as if after all the shit these people had caused in her life they still considered her the same as any other person who got to live their lives unaware of the never ending chaos swirling around Karakura. As if she wasn’t any more deserving of shred of respect or even a basic explanation.

“She’s fine, not playing soccer for awhile, but fine” 

Toshiro’s mouth twitched at the mention of the sport and for a brief second Karin wondered if he was thinking back to that time when they had first met, if it had impacted the hundreds of years old shinigami in any significant way. Most likely not, and for some reason that just annoyed her even more.

“In any case, stop playing at being your brother. It won't end well for you.”

Karin’s entire body went rigid and it took all her willpower not to lash out. Well, that and the fact that she knew she couldn’t land a hit on him, a traitorous part of her mind pointed out.

“I’ll do whatever the fuck I want to” she hissed, well aware of how childish it doubtlessly sounded. It hardly mattered, she thought, compared to him anything she said probably sounded childish.

He looked at her icily, not even bothering to frown at her response and that alone made Karin iche to get some sort of other reaction out of him. Before she could even open her mouth however, he had already turned away, walking to the open window.

Not even bothering to look back at her, Toshiro spoke “Additional Shinigami have been dispatched to Karakura, even after I leave they should be more than enough to deal with the recent influx of hollows. Don’t get in their way with you crusade to end up in a early grave.” With that he left, leveling Karin with one final frigid look.

She slammed her fist into the door, uncaring to if Yuzu heard, and stomped back to their room to throw herself into the bed. Even after Yuzu came in and settled into her own bed it took a long time before Karin was able to quell her rage enough to sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

The sun wasn't even peeking over the horizon when Karin was gathered her things to head over to Urahara's.

She darted around the bedroom snatching up notebooks and such, taking care not to make too much noise. Once she shoved everything onto her sports bag Karin trekked over to her sister and, having pushed her wide assortment of plushies aside, gave her a quick kiss on the forehead and a quiet goodbye. Yuzu mumbled softly and tossed an arm over Karin in what probably passed as a hug to her sleepy mind, before rolling over and snuggling back into the butt of a teddy bear she was currently using as a pillow.

Just before slipping out the door Karin grabbed her cleats and carried on down the stairs.

‘Forgetting those would be one quick way to get caught in a lie’

The memories of the previous afternoon played in her mind as she briskly walked the familiar path, urging her to a faster pace.

The whole thing had been a mess and Karin couldn't help but go over all the mistakes she had made. First had been not telling Nana to just go ahead after practice. It seemed like a small thing but those few minutes she had spent waiting for Karin could have made the difference between Nana being attacked or not. Of course that might have meant some other poor schmuck getting caught up but Karin wasn't naive enough to pretend that that option wasn’t the preferred of the two. Plus had it been some stranger who she had no emotional attachment to in need Karin probably would have kept her cool. Then there was the whole not cloaking her reiatsu before going after the hollow which would have prevented her from making the next mistake of not taking in the surroundings before engaging. If Nana had been more injured those few seconds that Karin spent dealing with the hollow could have been the difference between Nana bleeding out or not. Then there was freezing up in the middle of the fight only to be saved by Toshiro.

It was a whole damn series of careless mistakes that Karin knew she knew better than to make.

She couldn't change what had happened but she could damn well make sure she was never caught off guard like that in battle again. That she'd never need someone to save her again. Karin didn't need protection, she's the one who protected others. 

/Stop playing at being your brother/

The words flashed in her mind and all at once she could feel the anger rising in her throat. She tried to shoved it down. 

‘What the fuck did he know anyway?’

As she continued on her way the rage built and all she could see was the patronizing look in Toshiro's eyes, the icy glint that seemed to look down on her. That guy meets her a grand total of 3 times and suddenly thinks he knows her? That he can stand there and condescend to her about her life? That he can make such crap comments that hold absolutely no water based of how deeply he apparently knows her motivations in life?

Fuck that.

Karin stomped over the path leading to Urahara when all at once the rest of her conversation with Toshiro came back to her mind.

/Don’t get in their way with your crusade to end up in a early grave/

Shit.

Masking her Reiastu Karin continued on through the sparse neighborhood where Urahara's shop was, praying that her hunch was wrong, but she didn't even need to continue on to know that she wasn’t. Even with their own spiritual pressures masked Karin could already tell that the shop was much more occupied then usually. 

‘I should have known’

She made to turned on her heel before thinking better of it and continued forward, past Urahara's shop. On the off chance that they had felt her approach walking right by was a lot less suspicious then turning back now. 

She should have known the minute Toshiro mention the dispatched shinigami that her training couldn't go on as usual. Obviously Urahara would have been the one who was dealing with the shinigami at Karakura, hell Karin wouldn't be surprised if they were staying there for the time being. Which meant that she needed to stay away. Had it been under any other circumstances Karin would have marched in and demanded Urahara's promised attention but after their encounter yesterday Karin wouldn't put it past Toshiro to blab to Ichigo about what she was doing, if she didn't at least appear to be staying out of the way. And that would open up a whole can of worms that Karin wasn't prepared to deal with. 

No, it would be best if she stayed well away from Urahara's, at least until Toshiro left. She was more than willing to bet that most of the shinigami didn't even know Ichigo had sisters, let alone could identify them. Once the icy bastard was gone she'd be in the clear, or at least secure enough to head back to training without the threat of a snitching shinigami.

Realizing that she was already well past the shop Karin paused on the sidewalk to decide what to do with her suddenly free time.

‘I guess I can just go home’

The image of yesterday abruptly flashed in her mind and Karin shoved any thoughts of heading home away.

‘I can't afford to slack off, with or without Urahara I need to get to work.’

Karin backtracked down the road until she reached a small path, unnoticeable unless you knew it was there. Following its winding way Karin eventually came out at a small clearing that Urahara had taken her to during her first tenor at training with him. Scoping about the area she let out a soft sigh when she confirmed it was empty. Given that Urahara used this area there was probably no real risk of someone stumbling across it, even though he didn't look it Karin had long since learned the guy was meticulous to a fault.

Just as she dropped her bag to the side of the line of trees Karin noticed some papers fluttering from where it was tacked to a tree trunk across the way.When she reached close enough to make out the familiar writing along the first page a smile broke out along her face. Of course that annoying shop-keep would have planned for something like this. Scanning the printed out training regime Karin walked towards the center of the clearing.

Solo training it was then.

\---------------------------------

Rrrringg--rrringggg-

Yuzu rolled over a slapped the alarm clock until the loud and slightly annoying pop song she had set as her alarm finally stopped. After taking a few more minutes to appreciate the comfort of her warm bed she climbed out and stretched when her feet hit the soft carpet of the shared room. Tugging on sheets and setting plushies right she made her bed with quick efficiency before she grabbed her uniform and set off for the shower. 

Mayuki, a constant late sleeper, always voiced surprise at how early each of the twins rose but as far as Yuzu was concerned the experience was more than worth it. While Karin got up early due soccer practice, Yuzu did it more out of pure habit. When Masaki Kurosaki had still been around she'd been the definition of the an early bird and though most of her memories of that time had faded Yuzu could always remember those moments of startling awake hours early and stumbling to the family kitchen to avoid waking her sister, dragging a chair over to the counter to watch as her mom prepared breakfast and bento for the day while comforting away whatever worry was plaguing Yuzu's dreams.

Yuzu dressed quickly and made her way to the kitchen, hand tracing the same path on the wall that her 3 year old self would have pressed to for the first time all those years ago. The same path she traced the first morning after Masaki had died when she'd expected to somehow see her standing there in the kitchen as always, with a spoon in hand and ready to soothe Yuzu's nightmares. The same place her fingers graced a month later when she had made the choice to take up that old spoon and with it the role left vacant after her mother's passing. 

Yuzu let out a soft laugh as she took out the rice pot, thinking back on her first attempt at breakfast, it had been so bad that Yuzu had sworn off traditional style breakfasts and had stuck fiercely to making toast, eggs and the like for months. As bad as it had been it couldn't compare to the bentos she'd sent them all off with that day. God, those had been so that awful Yuzu swears she could still taste the charcoal that barely passed as food in her mouth sometimes. She still remembers one of their nastier classmates asking if they were sure it wasn't urn ashes and not food in the bento before Karin had decked her in the face, it had been the crowning moment of that already frustrating and embarrassing day. Still her family had eaten everything without complaint, though they made no attempt to hid their relief once she started improving.

Soon cooking had changed from being a chore Yuzu could do to uphold her mother's memory and make sure her family didn’t starve or live off take out into something that she genuinely enjoyed.

There was peace in it.

By the time Ichigo and her dad made their way downstairs the table was full of dishes of food. 

"Morning Yuzu"

"Morning" she responded as she set aside a bowl. "Seems like everyone's up bright and early today, huh?"

"Yep with that physicians convention coming up I wanted to get all the paperwork in order so none of my darling children are left floundering without their Papa!"

Yuzu rolled her eyes good naturedly, after all the three Kurosaki siblings had been doing paperwork at the clinic for years now.

Ichigo snorted in disbelief, " Yeah well I got an annoying pest to deal with before school" 

"Which one of your friends are you slandering now Ichi-nii?" Yuzu questioned eyeing him curiously as she took her seat at the table while Isshin laughed, "You can't call all of them that and expect us to know the difference"

" Oi, its not slander if it's true! And they can all graduate from being pests when they stop acting like it. Besides this guy is more of a debtor than a friend anyway"

"Hmm?"

" Ah Yuzu-chan you definitely shouldn't get interested in whatever shady dealings your oniisan is up to!"

" Can it old man! Anyway don't worry about it, besides what's with the batter? You usually don't bake in the morning" Ichigo said around a mouthful of rice gesturing at the bowl she had abandoned earlier.

It was a distraction if Yuzu had ever heard one but she didn't let it bother her, it was pretty normal for teenage boys to not want to share every detail of their lives and Ichigo had always been tight lipped about some things.

" Figured I'd try a new cookie recipe out since I was up so early" She answered, "I might take some over to the soccer team"

"Ah Masaki it's a disaster! Our sweet little Yuzu is giving cookies to boys instead of her Papa and brother"

Laughing Yuzu flicked a grain of rice at her him " Don't worry I'll leave some here for you guys besides Dad you know Karin's team has nearly as many girls on it as boys."

If anything that made Isshin wail even louder " That just increases the categories of people I need to protect my innocent flowers fr-Argh- Ichigo why?!"

Ichigo settled back into his chair, "I promised Karin I'd kick you for her if you ever said any stupid shit about flowers and 'innocence' when she wasn't around"

Isshin lumbered over to Misaki's shrine and curled into it as he began to loudly complain about their children ganging up on him, which they ignored with practiced ease.

"Oi speaking of clubs how's your music one going?"

"Ah great!" Yuzu said brightly before leaning into Ichigo as if she was about to share a secret," The underclassmen are planning a 'secret' party for when us upperclassmen retire"

"How'd you figure that one out?"

"Niyoko-chan left the order lists for the party in the club room with a bunch of other admin forms, and then asked me to drop them off to the club supervisor..."

"...I'm starting to think both you and Karin have nothing but well meaning idiots as underclassmen"  
Yuzu giggled and swatted his shoulder " Don't be mean Ichi-nii, they're trying their best, you should have seen how upset she was when when she realized she ruined the surprise. I had to pretend that I hadn't seen anything"

"She actually believed you didn't look at any of those sheets during the entire trip to the teachers' office?" Ichigo scoffed, getting up to clear the table. "They must not know your nosiness"

"I prefer 'healthy curiosity'" she huffed, leaving the dishes to Ichigo as she spooned out cookie batter onto a baking sheet. 

With her and Karin entering high school and Ichigo graduating soon these types of easy moments had been far and far between so Yuzu savored them as the came. 

Ichigo placed the last dish into the drainer, before heading to the door with Yuzu trailing behind.

"Well I'm off, see you later Yuzu" He offered a quick hug which Yuzu returned tightly, careful not to get any of the cookie batter on her brother's uniform.

"Bye! Have a good day!" She called as Ichigo jogged down the sidewalk before locking the door and heading back to watch the cookies for a few minutes.

Humming to herself when they were done Yuzu set the cookies out to cool before heading over to the clinic.

" Dad! I'm heading out soon, I left some cookies for you on the counter. Bye!"

" Ah, my sweetest youngin hasn't forgotten about her old man after all! Have a good day Yuzu-chan!"

Laughing Yuzu headed back to the kitchen and took a quick bite of one of the cookies. 

Deeming them good enough she quickly packed up all but a few, which she left on a plate, into a container before grabbing her phone and bag. Saying a quiet goodbye at Masaki’s shrine Yuzu headed out the door. Shifting her bags in her hand Yuzu could feel the soft breeze blowing through the air. It was one of those perfect days, well, at least in her opinion. The sun was not quite risen so the sky was a slew of pinks, oranges and blues which you could just make out over the light fog that had settled in over night and there was a nice chill to the early morning air.

Yuzu let out a content sigh before murmuring to herself:

" Yes, today's gonna be a good day"  
\-----------------------  
Honestly, Ichigo would rather be somewhere else right now but he had never made a habit of running away from necessary conflicts and he certainly wasn't gonna start now.

"Kurosaki-kun..."

Still if Orihime had to urge him towards the Urahara's door with all the 'gentleness' she'd picked up from Tatsuki and Rukia well no one had to know.

"I wonder what's going on?" Orihime questioned inclining her head slightly towards the door and Ichigo could already see the wild theories flying through her mind. Both of them had felt the shinigami currently bustling about the back areas of Urahara's shop before they even reached the door. In fact that combined with catching a hint of Hitsugaya's spiritual pressure the day before made Ichigo pretty sure he already knew what he was here for. "I mean no offense to Urahara-san bu-"

"Ah Inoue you could never offend me, you guys made perfect time come meet some of our new friends"

Orihime blushed brightly and the two shared a look before heading to where Urahara's voice had come from. Ichigo's eyes barely glanced over the 4 shinigami that eyed them once they entered the room before settling down in front of the person he came to see, with Orihime following after offering a quick bow to the room. Out of the corner of his eye Ichigo could see Yoruichi pad into the room and settle down on Orihime's lap nosy as ever, as he surveyed their 'new friends'.

" I gotta admit, I'm surprised the seireitei actually sent shinigami out to do their job"

Ignoring the bristling from said shinigami Urahara let out a laugh, “Come on now Ichigo, you could stand to be a tad nicer after all the are here to take some of the load off you guys”

“I’ll believe that when I see it”

\-----------------------------------------

Humming quietly to herself Yuzu finally stepped into school, the walk would have been faster had she taken the usual shortcut but after Nana's 'fall' she had no interest in risking it.

Calling out greetings to the half awake teachers that passed her by Yuzu made her way to the back field were the soccer team usually practiced. The thought of accidentally intruding briefly passed through her mind but she pushed it away, after all Yuzu couldn't even count the amount of times she had sat in on their training, it was certainly common enough that people regarded her as somewhat of a part time manager. 

And it was because she spent so much time there that Yuzu realized almost immediately that something was wrong. The halls that eventually led to the back sports fields was unusually quiet. Most days you could here the sounds of practice before you even exited the school. Toeing open the field door Yuzu peered outside and was only half surprised to see no one on the soccer field. Glancing at her watch showed it was well past the time soccer practice should have started. After carefully dropping her bag and the cookies by the wall Yuzu jogged out to see if the team was perhaps on the far track. It wasn't used often but occasionally the coach would have them run laps there if the field was out of sorts. Seeing nobody there either, Yuzu turned and began walking back to school. She pulled out her phone and went to open a text to send to Karin but stopped thinking better of it.

Most mornings Karin's phone would either be off entirely or in extreme power saver mode, due to a few too many mishaps over the last year Karin’s phone held a charge like a leaky bucket held water. Even if it was left unused it barely lasted past lunch on most days which wasn't ideal for someone who stayed back for club activities as much as Karin did. With an updated version of her preferred model coming out in a few months Karin had opted to wait it out rather than getting a completely unfamiliar phone. Typically wasn’t an issue but sometimes, like today, it could be a minor annoyance.

Yuzu scrolled back up her contact list before final stopping on Ajou's name.

Sending off a quick text asking about where everyone was, and another futile one to Karin, Yuzu shoved her phone back into her pocket before grabbing her things and headed back into the school. Twisting the container in her hands as she walked she tried not to worry about Karin. Yuzu was admittedly a little bit overly anxious but given her family's bad habit of wandering into strange situations she felt her concern was warranted. 

"Hey Kurosaki-chan!"

Looking up from the cookies Yuzu broke out into a smile. " Imaoi! Good Morning! Practice again?" The other girl was decked out in Kendo gear and covered with sweat so it was no question as to why she was there.

"Yah just putting in some time before the last Kendo event of the year"

"Oh yeah Orina mentioned you would be trying for a sports scholarship next year right?"

"Yep. I'm pretty sure I got it in the bag but it never hurts to impress a couple more scouts" Imaoi replied, while retying her damp black ponytail in a way Yuzu had long since recognized as a nervous tick. "Next year is gonna be so weird with all you guys gone to high school"

Shaking her head Yuzu smiled at the girl who was currently one on the best junior Kendo practitioners in Japan right now. Imaoi had no reason to worry but Yuzu was well aware from her own experiences that telling someone that did exactly zero to help. Instead she pulled out the container of cookies from under her arm and shook them invitingly in Imaoi's direction.

" Well since you've clearly been hard at work want a treat?"

"Ohh, Kurosaki you're a godsend!" 

They two fell into a comfortable conversation, only broken up by Imaoi's munching and asking about Nana's injuries, keeping in step as they made their way the short distance back to the Kendo rooms.

Just as Yuzu's mind began to wander a quick vibration went off against her thigh. Fishing her phone out of her skirt pocket Yuzu scanned over the text she'd just received from Ajou.

" Hey were you just practicing forms by yourself?" Yuzu questioned, a quick thought passed through her head. 

"Ahn, bunch of us underclassmen were sparing, why?"

"You think they'd want a snack too?" She asked, "Karin's team disappeared on me so..."

"Are you kidding me? All my club members eat like tanks"

"Well then I've got someone to unload these on"

"Kurosaki Yuzu, feeding the entire middle school one club at a time.”

Laughing Yuzu handed over the container as they stopped in front of the Kendo room, Imaoi subtlety blocked her from the window, which she was glad for. The Kendo instructor had a tendency to drag friends of the club members right along into practices when given the chance, and Yuzu had already had enough experiences with that in 1st year to last a lifetime. It certainly didn't help that with Ichigo having gone to the same middle school and Karin's reputation people heard the name 'Kurosaki' and immediately thought physically apt, which Yuzu was not in the least. But nope, no one ever believed that until it ended with vomit on the Kendo floor, Nanshi sensei promising to help her with her potential and Yuzu ready to pass out from some horrific mix of fatigue and pure humiliation.

" ... wasn't that upset but I still felt bad" 

Yuzu's attention snapped back to Imaoi, immediately feeling bad for zoning out, "Hmm, sorry?"

Imaoi snickered, completely unbothered, probably already knowing exactly the fiasco Yuzu was remembering. "Orina was running me down about meeting up at that old cafè before school today but I already promised to be at Kendo"

" Ah but that would have been pretty short notice right?" After mentally doing the math Yuzu continued, "You'd have to have already been on the train here by that time"

"Huh? No, she asked yesterday"

" Oh? So she was gonna skip soccer practice?" Yuzu said shocked. More often than not Orina had to be dragged off the soccer field, Yuzu couldn't at all picture her skipping unless a family member or Imaoi was injured or something of equal gravity.

"Pfft what?! And risk Karin and Ajou's wrath?! No one's dumb enough for that" Imaoi cackled while shifting to block Yuzu again as a shadow past by the the Kendo room window. "According to her there was no soccer practice at all today"

That couldn't be right, according to Ajou's response practice had only been cancelled early this morning and Karin must have missed the message, like she was so prone to doing. But before Yuzu could refute it a voice called out to the other girl from inside the room.

"Damn that's my cue to get back to work, and yours to get going before Instructor Nanshi comes around"

Any desire Yuzu had to stick around and ask questions evaporated with that, she had no intentions of getting caught up in what Nanshi-sensei called practice and what she called hell.

With a slightly sweaty goodbye hug and a wave Yuzu was just turning the corner as the instructor burst out of the room.

" Ah Sensei perfect time! Younger Kurosaki brought some cookies for us!" 

" Ah?! You should have told her to stick arou-"

Yuzu made sure to speed up her steps at those words, conversation fading out of earshot as she headed off to the classrooms. Once she was a safe distance away she slowed, digging around in her pocket for her phone to scroll back to the text she had last received.

From: Ajou

Practice cancelled, something came up this morning, BaKa-rin probably ignored her line message again like always.

Rocking on her heels Yuzu thought on the likelihood that Imaoi had gotten it wrong, after all she wasn't the one actually in the club. But that honestly made even less sense, whatever Imaoi knew about the soccer club nine times out of ten came from Orina. And though people could accuse her of being any number of things, Orina took soccer more seriously than most people, including Yuzu, took anything in their life and on top of that she was meticulous to a fault. She just couldn't picture the girl who planned out her day to the minute just suddenly forgetting about her favourite activity of it. But the alternative was... 

Yuzu shoved the thought out of her head. This wasn't a big deal, there was no point in getting worried about it. Whatever version of what happened was the truth wasn't really a big deal regardless. All this worrying, it was probably just the manifestation of Yuzu's desire to keep tabs on her family, especially since Karin was really the only one she actually had any hope of doing that with. She needed to calm down, just like she'd been doing every time Karin wasn't where she said she be lately. Just like she's been doing that whole years worth of time where Ichigo never seemed to be anywhere...

Practices had been cancelled before, miscommunications had happened before.

There was no use being anxious about it, but Yuzu had a feeling it would stay in the back of her mind for a while yet.

\---------------------  
"Damn this is hard!"

Karin threw herself into the soft patch of grass by the treeline where her backpack and ball rested.She had gotten through the first day's allotted training pretty fast as it was just more of the same as last week, so of course she had to give some of the things for later in the week a go. If the damn shopkeep hadn't wanted her to well sucks cause it was his own fault. As far as she was concerned Urahara giving her the whole week's training regime was invitation enough to go at her own pace. 

But damn did Karin not expect walking on air to be so damn difficult. She'd been at it for the last half hour and hadn't gotten much of anywhere, both literally and figuratively. Heaving her sore body to lean on a tree Karin mentally thanked her past self for having the common sense to try the technique from a relatively low point. If this was how she felt falling a 2 or 3 meters she didn't want to know how it would have gone for her had she let her over confidence win out and tried from some of the higher branches.

Leaning forward she dug around her bag until she felt out her water bottle and phone. Settling back into the tree she chugged half the bottle and after mental promising herself to only check a few things turned her phone on.

"Hmm?" 

1 message from Yuzu and some from Ajou, weird. Most people, especially those two, knew she didn't bother much with her phone before school. Any post workout lethargy Karin felt all but disappeared once she clicked Yuzu's text.

From Yuzu  
Hey couldn't find you guys, special practice or something?😅

Swearing quietly to herself she scrolled down to Ajou's texts.

From Ajou  
Its probs a good idea to not lie about easily disprovable things.

From Ajou (2)  
And cause I know ur gonna reply like 2 hours late whining at me to explain and I have no interest in being woken up again by another Kurosaki twin I'll just be frank...

From Ajou (3)  
Idkw but Yuzu was at school early and called asking where tf we where cause u dumb enough to lie about soccer practice 

From Ajou (4)  
Told her practice got cancelled last min. 

From Ajou (5)  
Told u last time Im not lying to Yuz anymore to cover up whatever illicit mess u doing before school again

From Ajou (6)  
U owe me.

From Ajou (7)  
and if u gotta lie at least lie well

Despite herself Karin couldn't help but roll her eyes fondly at his long winded texts. Settling back against her tree she sent off a quick text to Yuzu co-opting Ajou's lie, a better one would have been that they we're having a captains meeting but Karin wasn't hypocritical or ungrateful enough to complain about the paper thin lie Ajou's sleep addled mind had come up with when her original lie had been just as bad.

Flipping to the camera app she snapped a quick pick of herself leaning tiredly against the tree with her soccer ball in frame then sent that to Yuzu too with the caption 'solo practise is a bitch, but the only one who can beat me is me right?'

From Yuzu  
Karin... that was so bad😐

Cackling at Yuzu's lightning quick response Karin took note of her already diminishing battery and thought on her new situation.

The thing about lying to Yuzu was, well, that it only really worked when Yuzu had no reason to think she was lying. That's really the only reason Yuzu had ever believed any on Ichigo's trashy lies about where he was half the time those previous two years. Her sister wasn't a particularly gullible person no matter how many people seemed to think that because Karin was cynical and naturally suspicious that Yuzu must be the opposite. Just like all the other Kurosakis Yuzu had a particularly talent for smelling out people's bullshit when they weren't careful, she just had more tact about it than Karin or Ichigo.

Truthfully whether or not Yuzu believed the lie wasn't really much of an issue anyways. It was another misconception that they told each other everything when the in reality that could be farther from the truth. They both had lied and got caught in those lies more than enough times over the years that they knew when and when not to push for answers with each other. More often than not as long as it appeared innocuous or a lie to protect someone Yuzu would leave it be, just like how she hadn't called out Karin's lie about Nana's injuries.

Still, none of that made Karin feel any better about it. The whole point about lying had been to avoid worrying Yuzu and now that had all been shot to the wind because she didn't bother thinking of a better lie than 'um soccer practise'. Really it was a miracle she hadn't been caught up last time doing this shit, and that miracles name was Ajou. 

Which was a whole other thing to feel bad about. Last time when she'd been training with Urahara Ajou had been her go to alibi and he'd made no secret of not wanting to be put in that position again. Sighing Karin pushed herself to her feet, there was no use harping on it right now. She'd come up with some better lies and a way to make it up to Ajou after she gave this walking on air thing one more go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took way to long to get out despite being written nearly 2 months ago due to life kicking my ass.

**Author's Note:**

> I think Yuzu and Yushiro would make a good pairing and want to try something besides the usual Yuzu ships, though all the romantic ships in this are probably gonna take awhile   
> I read somewhere that Yuzu is actually the older twin which surprised me so i wanted to include it  
> criticism is definitely welcome, even after editing, (or what passes for editing to me) i still feel like i missed some tense changes and grammar issues.


End file.
